In 2021, the Sunshot Alliance, representing Australian business, workers, and the environment, came together to release Sunshot: Australia’s opportunity to create 395,000 clean export jobs. The report identified the risks to Australia’s economy if we continue our reliance on fossil fuel exports, and laid out an alternative vision for the future - an export economy driven by the clean energy and materials required for the globe’s energy transition.

The clean exports identified in the original Sunshot report already had the potential to create more value and add more jobs to the Australian economy than the fossil fuel industry. In a high ambition scenario, assuming policy support, the combined opportunity from 5 prioritised exports has now more than doubled. This report asserts that by 2040, Australia could achieve:

• $121b critical minerals revenue, from retaining world leading positions in mining and increasing value-adding onshore; to 60% of critical minerals.
• $96b green iron & steel revenue, from becoming a leading producer of green iron in a global market that rapidly decarbonises, producing 268mt p.a. of green iron to support this decarbonisation and increasing our own green steel industry to 20mt p.a.
• $39b battery supply-chain revenue, from policy to develop over 100GWh of battery pack manufacturing capacity p.a, supported by cell manufacturing and active materials capabilities.
• $32b green hydrogen & ammonia revenue, from a 15mt p.a industry supporting our green steel opportunity and exporting to key trade partners with hydrogen targets.
• $26b green alumina & aluminum revenue, from extending Australia’s current capacity to 5mt p.a by increasing access to firmed renewable energy.

Capturing this opportunity would see Australia become a global leader in clean exports. The opportunity is by no means assured, it will require focused public and private effort to transform our economy across three key imperatives; value-add more of our raw materials onshore, accelerate the development of our manufacturing capabilities and produce materials with lower embodied carbon at relatively lower costs as inputs to the globe’s energy transition.